Early Sunday morning in Scotland protestors serenaded
workers arriving at the
nuclear-armed Trident submarine base in Faslane. Later the same day in Vermont protestors serenaded police and private
security at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon. Each action was the latest in decades
of resistance to these nuclear installations. Each was peaceful and ended with the arrest, citation, and
release of dozens of protestors.

At Faslane, Brian Larkin succeeded in melding with the
workers and getting inside the submarine base, where he was arrested and
charged with breach of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (SOCPA), and
then released.

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At Vernon, about 300 people rallied on the Brattleboro
Commons before trekking by bike and bus to the main gate of Vermont Yankee,
which was defended by forty state troopers, a line of eight state police
cruisers, and a rope with a "No Trespassing" sign.

When Brian Larking was released, he made this apparently
unspontaneous comment: "the
serious organized crime happens inside the base and not in these actions for
peace and disarmament. It is the
ongoing deployment of Trident submarines -- each carrying 48 warheads, eight
times more destructive that the bomb dropped on Hiroshima which killed 200,000
people -- that constitutes serious organized crime and violates every principle
of humanity in international law."

The Vermont Yankee demonstrators first confronted the police
line with song and a giant cardboard "Trojan Cow" named Rosie who harbored a
contingent of subversive, cardboard solar panels, symbolizing the need to
replace nuclear power with more benign forms of energy. Each protestor committing civil
disobedience than took one of the solar panels and deliberately crossed the
police line, thereby committing "trespass" and inviting arrest in a
well-choreographed bit of protest theatre in which the police were willing
actors.

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In Scotland, the naval base was locked down for about 45
minutes after another four protestors slipped onto the base disrupting normal
operations and stalling traffic.
This was part of a campaign called "30 Days of Action" to mark 30 years
of continuous resistance to nuclear weapons by the Faslane Peace Camp. Since the campaign began June 9,
supported by a Trident Ploughshares affinity group, more than thirty people
have been arrested.

In Vermont, 40 troopers arrested 40 protestors without
incident. An 82-year-old man and
his legally-blind wife, 57, who have been fighting nuclear power since 1970, were
cited and released at the plant.
Police bussed the other 38 arrestees some 15 miles north to Putney,
where they processed and released them, to be called into Windham County
criminal court in the near future. click here;

Those arrested protesting the nuclear-armed submarines took
letters to the workers in side the base, explaining that the International
Court of Justice had issued an advisory opinion in 1996, finding that the use
of nuclear weapons would be illegal, and even the threat of use, through
deployment, maintenance, and upgrade is a violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty that took effect in 1970. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2012/07/497611.html

The Trojan Cow escaped arrest in Vermont and will appear
today in a Fourth of July parade in Brattleboro. Made of cardboard, newspaper, and latex paint over a wooden
frame of 2x4s, the black and white Holstein is eight feet tall and 14 feet
long, mounted on a trailer that takes four people to maneuver. Made in her free time over three
weekends by Dutch artist Ria Blaas who lives in Norwich, the cow has been
promised a long and active life at political demonstrations. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFX8QXTVDO8&feature=youtu.be

The SAGE Alliance that organized the Vermont Yankee protest
has scheduled its next protest for August 18, when they plan to launch a
flotilla of small boats on the Connecticut River, to highlight how the nuclear
plant is warming the water and leaking radioactive Tritium. http://sagealliance.net/home

It is expected that Rosie the Trojan Cow will be spared
exposure to either the water or the radiation.

Vermonter living in Woodstock:
elected to five terms (served 20 years) as side judge (sitting in Superior, Family, and Small Claims Courts);
public radio producer, "The Panther Program" -- nationally distributed, three albums (at CD Baby), some (more...)